First week back arrangements

Dear Parents and Carers,

We hope you are having a fantastic summer break and are managing to relax and unwind after what has been quite a challenging year so far. At the end of summer term, we published a sizeable document on our school website and social media platforms entitled ‘Parent Guidelines for the Full Reopening of Redhill School’. This document was deliberately detailed and contained all of the necessary information for you to prepare your child to return full time to Redhill School in September.

We hope you have had time to read and digest the information in this document. If you haven’t had an opportunity to read the document, then we urge you to take time to do so. Please click here and you will be able to access the document.

This correspondence will provide further clarity regarding the arrangements for the first week back and specifically the induction days that we intend to run. The objective of the induction days is simply to welcome students back and to help them understand the different aspects of our new operating systems and procedures. Each year group will be required to attend school at slightly different times on the first week and therefore it is imperative that you only send your child into school on the days specified below;

Wednesday 2nd September

Only Year 7 and Year 11 pupils will be required to attend school on Wednesday 2nd September.

Thursday 3rd September

All pupils from all year groups will attend school on Thursday 3rd September

There will be a ‘staggered end’ to each school day. Please remind yourselves of the finish times for your child. These are published in the parent handbook.

Finally, when we published the parent guidelines, we asked that if parents were unsure of anything relating to the full reopening of the school then they should email us and we would endeavour to answer your questions. The only frequently asked questions that have emerged to date are around Physical Education lessons and siblings starting at different times.

In regard to PE, all students will study class based PE lessons for the first fortnight whilst further risk assessments on conducting PE lessons in a COVID safe manner are completed. We will review this on the week beginning Monday 14th September and will most probably be ready to reintroduce practical PE into the curriculum at this point. We understand how important core Physical Education is as part of a broad and balanced curriculum and therefore we will be working hard to implement it as soon as we can in Autumn Term.

In terms of siblings arriving and leaving school at different times, we have reviewed our protocols and for siblings we would suggest that siblings can arrive together at the earliest time and any remaining sibling(s) should go directly to their form tutor base in their zoned area to wait. If any siblings wish to wait at the end of the school day then they should do so in their respective pastoral base (they will be shown these on the first day) until their brother or sister has finished school.

If you have any further questions over the next fortnight then please email info@redhill.dudley.sch.uk and a member of staff will deal with your enquiry and we are extremely excited to welcome all pupils back to school in just over a week. Enjoy the rest of your summer break and we look forward to working with you all this academic year.

Yours sincerely,

Mr N J Ford

Deputy Headteacher